


Mr. Blackwood

by Lairen_Hay



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Georgie will show up in chapter 2, Head of the Magnus Institute Martin Blackwood, Hurt No Comfort, Jon went off the deep in at some point huh?, Kinda, Melanie King is mentioned, Nonbinary Character, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attacks, Post-Canon, Tea, everyone has PTSD, eye possession, if you think something should be tagged, lots of talk about skin, mentions of eye gouging, no beta I have no friends, tell me i will tag it, the fear of not being in your own skin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-22 03:02:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30032025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lairen_Hay/pseuds/Lairen_Hay
Summary: First Chapter: Everyone has trauma thanks to the Apocolypse and they are flocking to The Magnus Insitute and sister locations just to kinda vent about it and to get answers. But the Archives is understaffed because everyone who worked there died except for "Mr. Blackwood" the new head of the institute. So he asks to speak to someone.Second Chapter: Georgie drags Jon on the floor his terrible decisions or something. IDK I'm gonna start writing tomorrow.
Relationships: (kinda) - Relationship, Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Kudos: 10





	Mr. Blackwood

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, small disclaimer I am not currently caught up with TMA I have no idea what's going on there.

There was a knock on the door before it opens. "You wanted to see me, Mr. Blackwood?" 

Mr. Blackwood looks up from his computer at the person in the door, a researcher named Arrow Clarke, and gives them a friendly smile. "Yes Mx. Clarke, come in and have a seat. Would you like a cup of tea?" 

"No, no thank you," Arrow says as they make their way to a chair across from where Mr. Blackwood is sitting. 

Mr. Blackwood is a nice man from what Arrow has gathered. They never knew the man before ~~_(the apocalypse and the knowledge of who brought the apocalypse to this world was forced onto them and everyone else)_~~ he became Head of the Magnus Institute. They were hired as a researcher about a week after the worm infestation reached its peak and Mr. Blackwood was already working in the Archives then, so they never really interacted before. The one time they remember talking to him before was when Peter Lukas was in charge. They had bumped into him and after a few quick apologies, they went their separate ways. It was a small encounter, but pulling from that memory they're pretty sure Mr. Blackwood’s eyes weren't green. _(They're not sure what color his eyes used to be, but they know they were not green.)_ There are also scars around his eyes that weren’t there before, but that’s pretty explainable.

"Ok then, let's just get to why I called you here." Mr. Blackwood wrung his fingers together for a few seconds. "As you know thanks to the event that ended just a few weeks ago," has it only been a few weeks, " has caused quite a bit of our staff to quit around the time we started getting an influx of statements." Yes, they do know this, Arrow themself had even considered quitting. They had instead just asked for some time off just to ~~_(make sure they were in the right skin)_~~ come back to reality. Besides, they wanted answers. 

"But I thought more people are handing in applications?" More people wishing to understand what just happened. 

"There is. It's good that more people are wishing to help out whether it be in Research, the Library, Artifact Storage, or even the IT department, but, well, none of them, uh," Mr. Blackwood looks off to the side for a few seconds before looking back at Arrow," none of them have applied for the Archives." 

Very suddenly Arrow had a sense of dread. "Oh." They feel that they know where this conversation is going. 

Their skin starts to not feel right.

"Not only do we need people working there to properly file the statements away but with the influx of people coming to give statements, we haven't been able to keep up. I'm sure you have seen the lines. That's not to mention it's usually the Archives job to take them. So we, uh, need a new Archival staff… that includes an Archivist. " Mr. Blackwood is no longer looking them in the eyes. Arrow is having a hard time processing this and it seems like Mr. Blackwood Knows. 

"Would you like some tea," Mr. Blackwood offers again. Arrow nods, they really feel like tea right now. Just holding something would help now. Especially something other than their arm, because they were picking at the scar there  ~~_ (they have scars all over their body from where those things skin them alive then put a new skin on, skin that was not theirs) _ ~~ . “How do you take it?”

“Some chamomile tea with some honey will be good,” Arrow gives Mr. Blackwood a nervous smile as they say this. 

“Ok,” Mr. Blackwood nods, “Be right back.” He then stands up and leaves the room to presumably make tea. He went through a different door than the one Arrow came in through and they stare right at it. One of their friends had told them to check and make sure any doors they go through were actually there and not yellow. And with everything that just happened, they took the advice to heart. Thankfully the door is just a regular brown door that probably just leads to some sort of private breakroom. 

Mr. Blackwood left the door open, probably so he can look in and make sure they don't steal anything, but Arrow doesn't really care about that though. They run their hands up and down their arms, pulling up the sleeves of their shirt in the process, making sure their skin is on right. That it's _their_ skin, to begin with. They remember having to walk around in somebody else's skin, skin that was either way too big or way too small. They would walk around in other’s skin, other’s lives until the skin became too loose and fell off or was so tight they had eventually ripped it. They briefly think about how they use to want to be somebody else, whether it be they didn’t feel comfortable in their own skin, or they just hated themself. They think they’ll never wish for that again. Does the skin around their legs feel loose but the skin around their shoulders and the back of their neck feel too tight? It feels like their face isn’t on quite right. ~~_(Maybe this is just all in their head-- but no, it can't be-- this wouldn't be happening if it wasn't for that Archivist–-)_~~

"Tea's done." Arrow almost jumps out of their  ~~_ skin _ ~~ no, don’t think about that. They turn back to the door that leads to the breakroom. Mr. Blackwood is standing in the doorway holding two steaming mugs of tea. He starts walking back over to his desk. He looks kinda awkward like he knows Arrow is having a panic attack and doesn’t quite know what to do about it. That makes sense though, why should they expect their boss to know how to deal with this. Mr. Blackwood set one mug in front of Arrow then went back to his chair. “Do you want to talk about anything, or do you just want to drink some tea for a bit, Mx. Clarke,” he asks in a soft voice. Arrow couldn’t get any words out, so they just grabbed the mug. 

Holding something warm is helping a little bit. Not to mention it smells good. They take a sip and are disappointed that it doesn’t taste as good as it smells. It’s over-steeped and it’s a little obvious that Mr. Blackwood tried to make up for it extra honey in there, but it’s decent. 

It’s distracting them from their skin and that’s the only thing that matters to them right now. 

Mr. Blackwood tried to make some sort of conversation once (the mug with a pale blue cat saying “no thoughts” was gifted to Mr. Blackwood by his husband apparently) but was quickly shut down due to Arrow’s current inability to speak at the moment. After a few more minutes of just sitting and drinking tea, Mr. Blackwood speaks up again. “Would it be okay to get on with business again, Mx. Clarke?” Although Arrow still doesn’t think they can speak right now, they nod anyway. “Okay, good.” Mr. Blackwood opens a drawer and takes out some papers.

“So, uh, as I was saying earlier, we’re going to need a new Head Archivist, because the, uh, the last one died,” Mr. Blackwood looks very uncomfortable talking about the Archivist _(no one can blame him)_. ”I was hoping that you would be the new Archivist. You are well enough qualified to be one in a normal workplace, plus I think you would make the right decisions. Now I don’t think I can prevent you from … developing any monstrous aspects, you’re definitely going to gain the power to compel, but we can try to limit it. There’s also the fact that other entities are going to try to end the world again, but with themselves at the head this time. You’ll need to stop them from succeeding. Not to mention that avatars are going to hunt you down just because of your position. But all of this isn’t relevant unless you accept of course.” Mr. Blackwood straightens the papers in his hands before laying them out in front of Arrow. "I have laid out here what responsibilities, things to look out for, and what you should generally expect in the position of Archivist. It also discusses the pay, official hours, and all the other stuff. You will be able to pick your own assistants, though I will have to give them a debrief of everything the job will entail before giving them the best job security in the world, haha.” 

Mr. Blackwood starts looking at them seriously in the eyes. “You don’t have to agree to this, okay. I can always ask someone else. You don’t have to make any decisions right now. No one is forcing you. Do you understand that, Mx. Clarke?” Mr. Blackwood slides the stack of papers towards them. “Take this home, look over it, and come to your own conclusion. You can email me when you have made your decision. Or if you have any questions.”

Arrow’s voice has suddenly decided to come back. ”Okay, yeah, okay,” they say in a soft voice. Arrow is completely _not_ okay ~~_(how could they be, they were just offered to be the_~~ ~~ _ **Archivist**_~~ ~~ _)_~~ , but differently than they were before, so that’s good. The _Archivist_? Mr. Blackwood wants them to become the _thing_ that ended the world? The thing that no one is sure if it’s dead or alive? Well, they guess Mr. Blackwood is quite sure. ~~_(Wasn’t the Archivist Mr. Blackwood’s dead husband or something?)_~~ This is _insane_!

But… but…

Arrow downs the rest of their tea, stands up, and grabs the papers off the desk. “Thank you for the consideration, Mr. Blackwood. I will definitely look this over and report my answer to you in some amount of time.” And they did not lie. They will look over those papers over and over again and again, genuinely considering it, despite the complete insanity of this.

Because this is the best way for them to get answers. And maybe, their friends will want some too.

Mr. Blackwood smiles brightly. “No, thank you for considering this, Mx Clarke. I hope to hear from you soon and that you enjoy the rest of your day.” Mr. Blackwood stands up and shakes Arrow’s hand before they leave.

After the door closes behind them the man pretending to be Martin Blackwood sits down and lets out a sigh. 

“That went well, didn’t it,” he says to the dark computer screen that reflects Martin’s face with Jon’s green eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, so, my original intention was to not write 1700+ words with my OC or have more than 1 chapter but look at where we are! 
> 
> Anyway, my Tumblr is lairen-hay


End file.
